The clash exploded into chaos.
The black-armored commander roared, his voice cutting through screams and steel.
"Move! Help the outworlder now!"
He charged first, blade flashing like a falling star. Limbs flew. Corrupted elves demons wearing stolen skin fell screaming as he carved through them without hesitation. Even the smaller forms, those that still looked like children, were cut down when they lunged with blackened claws and hollow eyes. There was no mercy left to give.
Behind him, the white-armored elf raised his weapon, emerald blazing, and the rest of their force surged forward. Arrows streaked through the air, magic detonated in flashes of gold and blue. The giant sentient mushrooms hurled massive stones like living siege engines, crushing entire clusters of corrupted bodies into pulp.
But it wasn't enough.
Nyxia fought like a cornered beast.
He fired until Ebon Wrath smoked, slashed with Noctem's Veil until his arms burned, but hands grabbed him from every side. Fingers dug into his limbs, claws hooked into his shoulders, bodies piling on top of him like a living grave.
He roared, struggling then felt breath on his ear.
Lirithen.
She slid through the horde as if it parted for her, untouched, unopposed. Her lips brushed close to his ear as she whispered, her voice intimate and poisonous.
"Oh, Nyxia… I truly hoped you'd come willingly."
Her smile widened, black ichor seeping from the corners of her eyes.
"But it seems we must force you."
The horde tightened their grip and began dragging him step by step toward the stone gate carved into the mountainside.
The Tomb of the Fallen Star.
"STOP THEM!" the black-armored commander shouted, his voice cracking with fury. "DO NOT LET THEM BRING THE OUTWORLDER TO THE GATE!"
The elves fought like their world was ending because it was. Steel rang, magic burned, bodies fell. Still, the corrupted tide did not slow.
Inside Nyxia's mindscape, everything was breaking.
A door black, jagged, forced open by sheer will stood between realities.
Ebon Wrath and Shadow's Requiem braced themselves against it, holding it open as something vast thrashed beyond.
"HURRY!" Ebon roared. "BRING IT IN IT'S THE ONLY CHANCE HE SURVIVES!"
Noctem's Veil ran.
Behind him thundered the monstrous form Nyxia's true shadow emaciated, antlered, eyes burning gold, jaws opening impossibly wide. Reality warped with every step it took.
Then
It stopped.
The creature recoiled, as if the doorway itself terrified it.
Noctem didn't hesitate.
Black energy snapped into existence as he summoned a black lasso, hurling it around the monster's neck. It screamed not in pain, but in rage and thrashed violently, claws tearing through the void as it tried to escape.
"MOVE!" Noctem snarled, digging in his heels as the pull nearly ripped him apart.
Ebon and Shadow screamed in unison, straining against the door as it began to collapse inward.
With a final, violent heave
The monster was dragged through.
The doorway slammed shut.
Silence.
Outside
Nyxia screamed.
The corrupted elves froze as his body convulsed. Bones cracked. Flesh tore and reformed. His silhouette expanded, shadows pouring out of him like smoke.
His spine arched violently as massive, gorilla-like arms burst forth, knuckles slamming into the ground and leaving molten claw marks in stone. His legs twisted into wolf-like limbs, talons gouging trenches through the earth.
Tendrils erupted from his torso, writhing and alive, hundreds of golden eyes snapping open across his body.
Antlers split his skull as his jaw unhinged opening too wide, revealing not a throat, but a swirling void of teeth, memory, and hunger.
The corrupted horde stumbled back in terror.
Lirithen's smile finally faltered.
Nyxia was no longer being dragged.
He stood.
Nyxia retreated into himself, reduced to a silent observer as his monstrous form seized control. The thing tore through the attackers in a blind rampage bones shattered, bodies crushed, flesh reduced to ruin beneath its fury.
Lirithen staggered back, eyes wide, and screamed, "Bitru now!"
The air split with a thunderous roar.
Something massive slammed down between the combatants. It stood as tall as Nyxia's abomination, humanoid in shape yet unmistakably inhuman: a man's body twisted with unnatural power, a leopard's head bared in a snarl, and vast griffin wings unfurled behind it. The impact cracked the ground beneath its feet as it straightened, locking eyes with Nyxia's monstrous form.
Bitru didn't hesitate.
The creature hit Nyxia like a living meteor, wings folding tight as its full weight slammed into him. The ground cratered beneath them. Nyxia's monstrous body was forced flat, stone cracking under his back as Bitru straddled him and began driving its fists down again and again.
Each blow smashed Nyxia's face into the earth, horned skull grinding into dirt and shattered roots. The world blurred impact, darkness, impact his vision flickering as the leopard-headed brute roared with every strike, its voice a mix of animal fury and something far too intelligent.
Nyxia tried to rise. Tried to claw back.
Bitru caught his antlered horns instead.
With a brutal wrench, it hauled Nyxia up just enough to slam him back down. Once. Twice. Again. The ground broke further with each impact, shockwaves rippling outward as Bitru used the horns like handles, bashing Nyxia's head into the earth with merciless precision.
Bitru kept hammering Nyxia into the ground, each blow sending cracks spidering through the stone beneath them. From Nyxia's back, one of the writhing tendrils stiffened its tip sharpening into a jagged spear before snapping forward.
It punched into Bitru's torso.
The strike wasn't deep, barely piercing muscle, but it was enough. Bitru froze, breath hitching as he staggered half a step back.
That hesitation was all Nyxia's monstrous body needed.
A massive fist swung upward, colliding with Bitru's guard and driving him backward in a spray of dirt and shattered stone. Bitru skidded across the ground, wings flaring to steady himself.
Inside, Nyxia reduced to a spectator in his own mind actually jumped.
"Yes—!" he cheered instinctively, before clamping his mouth shut.
"Huh," a voice said calmly beside him. "That thing's smarter than I expected."
Nyxia flinched hard, spinning toward the sound. "Eon?" he asked.
The man standing there shook his head. "No. I am Shadow Requiem."
Nyxia narrowed his eyes, studying him. "How am I supposed to trust you?"
Shadow Requiem sighed, clearly unimpressed. "You're in your own mind. If we wanted to hurt you, you would have died long ago."
Nyxia swallowed.
Outside, his monstrous form roared and charged again.
Bitru staggered back, shaking his head as if trying to clear something lodged inside his skull. Then his eyes locked onto Nyxia.
With a violent snap of his wings, Bitru launched forward.
The impact was catastrophic.
Nyxia's monstrous body was lifted clean off the ground and slammed into the mountainside, stone exploding outward in a thunderous burst. Before Nyxia could recover, Bitru seized one of his antlered horns and wrenched.
There was a sharp, splintering crack.
The horn snapped free.
Without hesitation, Bitru drove the broken antler into Nyxia's abdomen, ramming it in like a spear.
For a brief moment, it should have been fatal.
Instead, Nyxia laughed.
The wound barely registered flesh knitting, tendrils tightening around the embedded horn. Inside, something snapped. Rage flooded through him, hotter, deeper, more violent than before.
Nyxia's monstrous form straightened slowly.
Angrier.
Far angrier.
Nyxia surged forward and wrapped Bitru in a crushing embrace.
Bitru froze for half a heartbeat before panic seized him. His wings snapped open and began to beat wildly, lifting both of them off the ground. The air screamed around them as they rose but Nyxia did not loosen his grip.
He tightened it.
There was a wet, grinding crack as something inside Bitru's torso gave way. Another followed. Then another. Bitru howled, wings flapping harder, faster, driven by blind desperation rather than control.
Upward they tore through the air and then they slammed into the stone ceiling.
The impact thundered through the cavern, cracks spiderwebbing across the roof as dust and debris rained down. Nyxia still didn't let go.
If anything, his arms locked even tighter.
Bitru's strength finally failed him.
His wings stuttered once, twice then went limp. The air vanished beneath them, and both bodies crashed into the stone below with a bone-rattling impact.
Bitru barely felt it.
Nyxia's hand was already on his head.
Fingers like iron sank into his skull, claws digging in as pressure built slow, deliberate, inevitable. Bitru's vision blurred, darkness creeping in from the edges.
I'm sorry, Lirithen, he thought weakly.
I'm sorry I won't be there to see Father rise.
With the last of his fading will, Bitru forced his body to move. He twisted, drove himself downward, slamming his own head toward the stone in a desperate attempt to stun the monster holding him.
It didn't matter.
Nyxia tightened his grip.
There was a sharp, final crack wet and absolute as Bitru's head collapsed in Nyxia's hand, exploding against the ground beneath them.
The struggle ended instantly.
◇◇◇
The commander in black armor cut through the battlefield with singular purpose.
He did not hesitate. He did not slow.
Each swing of his blade tore through possessed elves without mercy armor split, bodies falling apart as if the flesh itself rejected what wore it. These were not kin anymore. They were violations. And there was only one target that mattered.
Lirithen.
To end whatever thing was puppeteering his ancestors' skins.
Behind him, the elf in white armor raised his staff, emerald set into his helm blazing as he began to chant. Runes flared into existence, and waves of searing light rolled across the field, burning through clusters of possessed elves. Screams echoed as corrupted flesh ignited and collapsed into ash.
The sight rallied the surviving warriors.
Elves surged forward, blades raised, spells flying momentum finally turning as the possessed ranks began to falter.
Then the sky broke.
A shadow fell from above, slamming into the ground with catastrophic force.
The commander skidded to a halt as Nyxia crashed down still wrapped around Bitru's corpse. The impact shattered stone, sending clouds of glowing spores and dust billowing outward, swallowing the battlefield in choking haze.
For a moment, everything went silent.
Then the dust shifted.
Through the haze, the commander saw her.
Lirithen stood untouched amidst the chaos.
He tightened his grip on his sword and advanced without a word.
His men moved instinctively, forming around him shields raised, blades flashing intercepting the desperate lunges aimed at their commander as he pushed forward.
Nothing would stop him now.
The dust had not yet settled when the commander reached her.
Nyxia lay motionless behind him, half-buried in cracked stone and glowing spores, his monstrous form slowly slackening as unconsciousness dragged him under. The battlefield seemed to hold its breath around that fallen titan.
Lirithen stood alone.
Her dress was torn, her skull misshapen where the bullet had struck but her body had already corrected itself. Bone slid back into place with a wet, subtle sound. Skin smoothed. She brushed imaginary dirt from her shoulder as if mildly inconvenienced.
The commander raised his sword.
"Step away from him," he said.
His voice did not shake.
Lirithen tilted her head, studying him with something like fond amusement.
"You've grown," she said softly. "The last time I saw you, you were so young your brother and you used to call me great grandmother."
The commander advanced one step. His men fanned out behind him, weapons trained on her.
"You are wearing my great-grandmother," he said. "You will stop."
She smiled.
"Oh, no," Lirithen replied. "I am your great grandmother."
Her eyes darkened not suddenly, not violently, but like a curtain being drawn. The village around them twitched. Corpses shifted. Possessed elves that had already fallen smiled with broken mouths.
"You call us demons," she continued. "But we were born from what your kind buried. Fear. Grief. Hope abandoned in tombs."
The commander tightened his grip.
"You stole their faces."
Lirithen stepped closer. No one stopped her. No one could.
"We borrowed what was left," she corrected. "They were empty when we found them. Faithless. Forgotten. Perfect."
She glanced past him to Nyxia's unmoving body.
"And now," she said, voice reverent, "we have something better."
The commander moved in a blur.
Steel met flesh.
His blade cut clean through her shoulder, severing arm from body. Black ichor spilled but instead of falling, the limb twitched, fingers clawing toward him like a living thing.
Lirithen did not scream.
She laughed.
The severed arm dissolved into smoke, reforming at her side as she stepped back, unbothered.
"You still think this ends with a sword," she said gently. "That's why your kind always loses."
The elf in white began chanting again, louder this time. Light burned around Lirithen's feet, sigils locking into place.
For the first time, her smile faltered.
"You're delaying the inevitable," she hissed. "The Fallen Star will rise. The outworlder's blood has already answered the call."
The commander raised his blade again, pointing it directly at her throat.
"Then hear this," he said. "Whatever god you're trying to resurrect whatever wears my family's skin dies here."
Lirithen's eyes flicked once more to Nyxia.
Her smile returned, slow and knowing.
"Then pray he wakes up in time."
The ground beneath them began to tremble.
The tremor became a roar.
Stone split beneath their feet as veins of sickly violet light crawled up from the buried gate, answering Lirithen's presence like a heartbeat awakening after centuries of sleep. Spores lifted into the air, glowing faintly as if the world itself was inhaling.
The commander planted his feet.
"Form up!" he barked.
His soldiers obeyed instantly shields locking, sigils flaring but Lirithen raised one hand, palm upward.
"Stay," she said.
The ground buckled.
Half the formation was thrown aside as roots of blackened bone and petrified muscle burst from the soil, impaling armor, crushing shields. Screams followed. The commander did not turn back.
He charged.
Their blades met in a sound like a cathedral bell cracking in half.
Her fingers had become claws mid-swing, parrying his strike with unnatural precision. She moved like someone who knew exactly where his blade would be before he committed to it.
"You fight well," she said calmly, stepping inside his guard and raking her claws across his chestplate. "Your ancestors did too. They screamed just as loudly."
He slammed his pommel into her face.
Bone shattered.
She staggered back then straightened as the fracture rewrote itself, skin knitting over splintering skull.
The commander exhaled sharply.
"So it's true," he muttered. "You don't heal. You replace."
Lirithen smiled wider than before.
"Smart," she said approvingly. "That's why you were chosen to remember us."
She gestured and the fallen elves rose.
They stood, faces slack, mouths whispering prayers they no longer believed in.
The commander clenched his jaw and raised his blade again.
"Burn them," he commanded.
The white-armored mage screamed a word of power. Sunfire tore through the ranks of the possessed, reducing bodies to ash but the ash moved, crawling back together like insects reforming a corpse.
Lirithen walked through the flames untouched.
"You see?" she said softly. "You can kill vessels forever. But the tomb is open now."
The commander lunged again, faster, angrier.
This time he cut deep cleaving her in half at the waist.
For a heartbeat, she fell apart.
Then the lower half dissolved into smoke, and the upper half twisted, reforming legs as she landed gracefully behind him.
She grabbed his throat.
Not to crush it.
To hold him still.
"You should be proud," she whispered. "You held us back for generations."
Her grip tightened. His vision dimmed.
Then
A blade punched through her chest.
The commander had driven his sword backward, through himself, through her heart.
Blood poured from his mouth as he forced the weapon deeper.
Lirithen froze.
Her eyes widened not in pain, but in genuine surprise.
"…Ah," she breathed. "A self-sacrifice gambit."
He twisted the blade.
Light erupted from the wound, burning runes into her body, locking her form in place.
"You don't get him," the commander rasped. "You don't get anyone."
She screamed.
Not in agony
but in rage.
The ground split open beneath them.
Hands too many hands reached up from the gate, clawing at her legs, dragging her backward.
"No," she snarled, struggling as the seal burned brighter. "It's too soon he hasn't awakened!"
The commander shoved her toward the abyss.
"Rot with your god," he said.
She locked eyes with him as she was pulled under.
Her voice echoed, layered, ancient, amused.
"He already has."
The gate slammed shut.
Silence fell.
The commander collapsed to his knees, sword slipping from numb fingers. Around him, the possessed bodies crumbled finally empty.
Behind him
Nyxia lay still.
◇◇◇
Darkness swallowed him whole.
Not the gentle kind. Not sleep.
This was the kind of dark that pressed in from all sides, heavy and starving.
Nyxia stumbled forward, boots scraping against nothing, hands outstretched.
"Noctem?" he called.
"Ebon? Shadow?"
No answer.
Only the sound of something breathing slow, wet, vast.
He turned.
And nearly fell backward.
It towered over him.
His monstrous form stood there in full, impossible scale antlered skull scraping the void above, tendrils writhing like living chains, hundreds of golden eyes blinking out of sync. Molten claw marks burned into the ground beneath it, every breath distorting the darkness around it.
It was him.
And it was not pretending otherwise.
The creature lowered its head, eyes narrowing as they focused on Nyxia alone.
"Huuuungry," it rumbled, the word dragging out like it had to be forced through a throat that wasn't built for speech.
Nyxia swallowed and took a step back.
"Yeah," he said carefully. "You did a pretty good job out there."
The thing's lips peeled back, revealing that impossible void where a throat should be. Memory and teeth churned inside it.
It took a step forward.
The ground shook.
"You… are me," it growled. "I… am why you live."
Nyxia's pulse spiked.
Another step.
"You stop me," it continued, voice thick, blunt, struggling for shape. "You stop eating."
It reached out.
Nyxia jumped back just as massive claws slammed down where he had been standing, the impact sending cracks racing through the void-floor.
"I didn't stop you," Nyxia snapped, putting distance between them. "I let you out. You went wild. Big difference."
The creature tilted its head, confused then angry.
"Still....hunger" it rumbled. "So I eat… you."
It lunged.
Nyxia barely dodged, rolling across the dark as tendrils slammed down, carving trenches behind him. He scrambled to his feet, heart hammering.
"Hold on!" he shouted. "If you eat me, you die too. You know that, right?"
The monster paused.
Just for a fraction of a second.
Its eyes flickered.
"…No," it said.
Nyxia exhaled sharply. "Great. So you're strong and stupid."
That did it.
The creature roared raw, furious, the sound of something that had never been told no in its entire existence.
It charged again.
Nyxia didn't think he moved.
He leapt, the massive body rushing beneath him, heat and wind tearing past as claws missed him by inches. He hit the ground hard, rolled, and came up just as the monster skidded, tendrils digging into the void as it twisted unnaturally fast.
Too fast.
It spun and charged again.
Nyxia dropped low.
He slid beneath it, the shadow of its bulk swallowing him whole, antlers scraping sparks across the darkness above. As he passed under its center mass, he twisted his torso and drove his fist upward
Straight into its stomach.
The impact landed.
For half a second, Nyxia thought he'd actually hurt it.
Then pain exploded up his arm.
It felt like punching living stone wrapped in muscle and fire. The shock ran through his bones, rattling his teeth, nearly tearing the arm from its socket.
The monster staggered anyway.
Just one step.
Its breath hitched, a confused, enraged sound rumbling from deep within its chest.
Nyxia skidded away, clutching his arm, shaking it out as sensation slowly returned.
"…Okay," he muttered through clenched teeth. "That was a mistake."
The creature turned, eyes blazing brighter now.
"Hurt," it growled.
And this time, it smiled.
They circled each other.
Nyxia kept moving.
Jump. Roll. Slide. Pivot. Every motion was instinct layered over panic, his body reacting faster than his thoughts could catch up. The creature lunged again and again, each charge missing him by less and less claws tearing through the void where his head had been a heartbeat earlier, antlers slicing the air beside his shoulder.
Cat and mouse.
Only the cat was learning.
The monster began to change how it moved.
It stopped overcommitting. Its charges shortened. Its tendrils spread wider, no longer striking blindly but cutting off paths, forcing Nyxia to dodge where it wanted him to go.
Nyxia skidded to a halt, breath ragged.
"Hey—hey—timeout," he muttered, already moving again as claws slammed down behind him.
Too close.
A tendril grazed his back, searing heat ripping through his nerves. He cried out, stumbled, barely catching himself before another strike carved a trench across the ground inches from his legs.
The creature rumbled, low and pleased.
"Run," it said.
Nyxia's heart sank.
It wasn't just chasing anymore.
It was herding him.
He darted left blocked. Right antlers crashed down, forcing him to roll forward instead. He came up hard, chest burning, only to find himself backed toward a wall of darkness that hadn't been there before.
Or maybe it had.
And he'd been too focused on surviving to notice.
The monster loomed closer, steps slow now, deliberate. Each footfall shook the space around them.
"Hunger… learns," it growled.
Nyxia wiped blood from his mouth, eyes flicking for exits that weren't there.
"…That's not good."
The creature raised its arms.
And Nyxia realized too late that there was nowhere left to dodge.
A gunshot cracked through the darkness.
The sound was wrong here too sharp, too real.
A heartbeat later, a dull thud followed as the round struck flesh.
The creature lurched.
A chunk of its back detonated outward in a spray of shadow and molten fragments. Tendrils recoiled, eyes blinking wildly as it staggered a single step forward.
Then it straightened.
The wound knit itself back together, skin crawling and sealing like it had never been there.
Superficial.
Nyxia didn't care.
He grinned anyway.
Because they were there.
Across the dark, three figures emerged.
Two of them stood side by side near-identical silhouettes, tall and lean, faces sharp and familiar in the way reflections are familiar. Their movements were synchronized, precise, every step measured.
It's Shadow'sRequiem and Ebon's Wrath they look identical to each other.
Beside them, a shorter figure sprinted forward, movements erratic, almost aggressive, coat flaring as they ran.
Noctem.
The twins raised their arms.
Metal flowed like liquid down their forearms, reshaping, locking into place as both arms unfolded into long, brutal gun barrels. Chambers rotated with a mechanical click-click that echoed through the void.
The creature turned slowly, eyes narrowing.
Nyxia exhaled, tension breaking just enough for a laugh to slip out.
"About damn time."
The monster growled, low and angry now not hungry.
Threatened.
And for the first time since the chase began, Nyxia wasn't alone.
Nyxia didn't hesitate.
The instant the creature's attention snapped toward the twins, Nyxia dropped low and slid beneath its reach, the heat of its shadow washing over him as claws missed by inches.
He sprinted.
Straight for Noctem.
"Noctem!" he shouted.
The shorter figure grinned and leapt.
Midair, its body folded inward, edges sharpening, form compressing metal flowing, reshapinguntil a katana spun downward, hilt-first.
Nyxia caught it.
The weight was perfect.
He drew the blade in one smooth motion Shing.
The sound cut through the void like a promise.
Nyxia settled into a stance without thinking, feet grounding themselves, blade angled forward. The twins stepped in beside him, barrels locking into place, both aimed squarely at the monster's core.
The creature recoiled a half-step, eyes flicking between them.
Hesitation.
Fear.
Nyxia's smile widened, sharp and feral.
"Alright," he said quietly. "Let's do this properly."
The monster lunged.
Nyxia didn't retreat.
The twins fired.
Twin detonations tore through the void, rounds slamming into the creature's chest and shoulders. Flesh ruptured, shadow bursting outward but even as it staggered, the wounds began to crawl closed.
Too slow.
Nyxia was already moving.
He slipped inside its reach, boots skidding across the dark as claws slammed down behind him. The katana flashed in his hands, Noctem's Veil humming alive, eager.
"Now," Nyxia breathed.
He struck.
The blade carved upward in a clean, brutal arc starting at the creature's hip, slicing across its torso, ending beneath its ribs.
This time
The wound did not close.
The monster screamed.
Black ichor poured from the gash, the edges of the wound burning with a dull, devouring glow. Tendrils recoiled violently, eyes blinking out as the creature staggered back, clutching at its own body.
"HURT!" it bellowed, voice cracking, confused, furious.
Nyxia skidded away, chest heaving, blade held low.
He stared at the cut.
Still open.
Still bleeding.
He laughed breathless, half-hysterical.
"I can hurt you," he said.
The monster stared at him now not as prey.
But as a threat.
Its posture changed. Lower. Guarded.
And somewhere deep in its ruined throat, the hunger twisted into something darker.
Fear.
The creature's gaze snapped away from Nyxia.
Locked onto the duo.
Its pupils narrowed, hunger twisting into something sharper instinctual threat recognition.
"Noise," it growled.
Then it pounced.
The ground detonated beneath its feet as it launched itself forward, tendrils snapping back, antlers lowered like spears. They fired in unison, muzzle flashes tearing through the dark as round after round slammed into its chest and face.
Chunks blew away.
None of it slowed it enough.
It crashed into them like a falling mountain.
Shadow's Requiem was slammed into the ground, the impact fracturing the void beneath him as claws pinned his shoulders. Ebon Wrath was swatted aside mid-step, his body skipping across the darkness before slamming into nothingness with a metallic crack.
Their gun-barrels morphed, firing point-blank into the creature's torso.
Still it roared.
"HURT BUT NOT YOU," it snarled.
Nyxia's grin vanished.
"No—!"
He lunged forward as the monster raised a claw over the pinned twin, shadow dripping from its fingers, preparing to tear.
The wounded gash in its side pulsed, still bleeding but it didn't care.
Pain was secondary now.
The threat had shifted.
And Nyxia realized, with cold clarity if he didn't act right now, he was about to lose them.
The creature clutched the two in its massive hands, pinning them like fragile dolls, their barrels uselessly aimed outward. Nyxia froze, realizing he couldn't get close without risking them.
Then, Shadow's Requiem twisted in its grasp, and with a burst of fire, an artillery-like round slammed into the wound Nyxia had made. The monster bellowed, a sound that shook the cavern around them, its body convulsing from the impact.
Seeing the effect, Ebon Wrath didn't hesitate another shell followed, then another, each one driving deeper into the gash, the air erupting in smoke and molten sparks. The monster howled, staggering under the relentless onslaught, its grip on the twins trembling with pain.
Using the chaos of the twins' bombardment, Nyxia dashed forward, moving like a blur. Noctem's Veil slashed through the air, carving into the creature's legs with precision. One leg shattered, the other mangled its balance faltering.
With a sharp, decisive strike, Nyxia severed one of its arms, and the twin it had been holding tumbled free, rolling to safety. Nyxia didn't pause. He pressed the edge of Noctem's Veil against the back of the creature's massive neck, halting its movement just enough to try reason.
"Listen! You don't have to—"
"HUNGRY!" the creature roared, voice guttural and fractured. "YOU… FAKE! YOU… KILL ME! YOU… NO EXIST! WE… ARE ONE!"
It twisted violently against him, antlers scraping the ground, tentacles flaring in rage, and the sheer force rattled Nyxia's grip. Its eyes burned with feral intelligence, not just instinct.
Nyxia steadied himself, heart pounding, realizing words wouldn't reach it. Reason was useless this was no longer a monster to negotiate with. It was an echo of himself, primal, relentless… a part of him that demanded to consume.
Nyxia lifted Noctem's Veil from the back of its neck, and something deep inside him stirred an instinct he couldn't explain, a pull that felt like the two of them were already one. Even in his own mind, he didn't understand why, but his body obeyed.
His hands shot forward, grabbing the creature's jagged antlers, and a surge of energy roared through him. Colors and shadows twisted around their forms, and Nyxia felt the monstrous essence flowing into him power, rage, hunger all being drawn into himself as though the creature was being unraveled from the inside.
Despite never having used this ability, every fiber of his being screamed that this was right. The creature bellowed, struggling, its roar echoing through the dark corners of his mind, but Nyxia's grip only tightened. With each heartbeat, he absorbed more becoming the storm, the monster, and the wielder all at once.
Outside, the elves cheered, their voices carrying through the reclaimed village, celebrating the defeat of the monstrous entity that had worn the skins of their ancestors. Relief and triumph filled the air.
Inside a nearby tent, Nyxia lay in his human form, his chest rising and falling slowly as if he were merely exhausted. But the moment of peace shattered. The laughter and celebration died instantly, replaced by an oppressive, suffocating silence.
A crushing wave of despair rolled over the village, heavy and absolute. Fear gripped their hearts, a primal terror that whispered of inescapable death. No sword, no spell, no strategy could touch it they felt the inevitability of their doom press down like a physical weight.
All of it emanated from Nyxia.
Inside him, the Consumer that had long stirred beneath the surface now fused fully with his being. Its hunger, its predatory instinct, its unyielding drive to consume all were no longer separate. They were one. Nyxia was no longer merely a vessel.
He rose from the cot, his form human, but the energy radiating from him was anything but. Shadows twisted unnaturally around his limbs, his eyes glimmering with that same cold hunger that had driven the monster in his mind. He was a Consumer, and the world those who stood before him could feel it.
The elves, once victorious and joyous, now looked upon him with awe and terror. The celebration had died, leaving only the terrifying weight of inevitability.
Nyxia inhaled slowly. The fusion within him hummed, a pulse of power and hunger that demanded acknowledgment.